“Lady Egerton, perhaps it would be better if you left,” Warwick said.
Merritt gripped her hand tighter. “No. I will not leave her without protection.”
“Merritt,” Vanessa whispered, loving her friend for being her champion. Sometimes it felt like she was the only one.
“Please trust that the lady is not unprotected,” Benedict Norfolk said, holding Vanessa’s stare evenly. And strangely, she felt that protection in that moment. Felt the warmth that came from this man’s steady presence.
“And there is us!” her mother screeched. “Lady Egerton, I resent your implication that…”
She carried on and Vanessa sighed, ignoring her as she turned to Merritt. “Perhaps…perhaps it is better if you left me with just them. It will potentially calm them down slightly.”
Merritt frowned. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“I’ll be fine,” Vanessa assured her, even though it didn’t feel true. “And I’ll fetch you as soon as I know what is going on.”
Merritt looked uncertain, but she gave Vanessa a brief hug before she glared at Warwick and Norfolk and left the room. Left Vanessa alone in this situation. She straightened her shoulders and drew a long, steadying breath for whatever would come next.
“Please, Mr. Warwick, Mr. Norfolk,” she whispered. “What is it you must tell me that makes you both look so…so dire?”
Warwick returned his attention to her and she caught her breath. He had never looked at her directly before. He always glanced past her or over her and then away. She knew he didn’t like her much, though she wasn’t certain why. It made her own attraction to him all the more ridiculous. But now…now he held her entirely in his focus and there was an intensity to the feeling that made her knees a little weak.
“I do not know how to say this to soften the blow,” he said evenly. “Or to ease the pain it will cause you, so I will just be direct. My brother is…he’s gone. He left.”
The words rang in her ears as she stared at him, trying to comprehend what he meant, what this meant for her. “How—how do you know?”
“He left a letter,” Norfolk said before Warwick could answer, resulting in Warwick sending him a glare.
“He did,” Warwick said softly.
She stepped toward him and held out her hand. “I want to see it.”
He faltered, possibly for the first time since she’d met him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I wasn’t asking your opinion on that score,” she said. “I want to see the letter.”
He pursed his lips and withdrew two folded sheets from his pocket. He removed the second one and handed out just the first to her.
“Please,” she said. “Let me see it all.”
He shook his head. “The second page was directed toward me. It wasn’t about his leaving. What you want to see is in this part.”
She sighed, because it was clear the man wouldn’t be turned. She took the paper and examined it. She had to assume it was Arthur’s handwriting. In that moment, she realized she’d never received a message from him during their entire courtship. It was sloppy and large and overfilled the page.
Darrius,
Unlike you, I cannot live a lie, not for all the money in the world. I’m leaving tonight to be with a person I care about and desire more than any woman I’ve ever met. Mary might be a maid and she might not bring anything but herself to our future, but it will be more than enough. Now as for you…
That was where the letter cut off, apparently continued on the page that Warwick…Darrius…hid from her. But Vanessa couldn’t think about that, wonder about it. She read the words again, her head swimming.
“Hand it over, girl!” her father snapped, snatching the page from her hand.
She stared at Warwick. “He…he ran away with my maid? Is that what I understand? Your brother left me on our wedding day…with my maid, Mary?”
Warwick’s nostrils flared and his jaw tightened before he let out a short nod. “Yes. I’m afraid that’s exactly what has happened, Miss Gardner.”
Darrius
If Darrius had expected Vanessa Gardner to collapse when she received the news of his brother’s betrayal, he was shocked that she didn’t do that at all. She only wavered slightly, a tiny buckling that she corrected before anyone could reach her to shore her up. She continued to stare straight ahead, straight into his eyes even as her parents began to wail and shout and make a huge fuss behind her.
